The Scholar in Blue (1)
The vast training grounds of Bukcheon-won were alive with the sound of fierce combat.
There, a man and a woman were locked in a brutal duel.
Cha-cha-cha-chaang!
They traded blows as though they had gone mad.
-Wavesurge Gale Strike!
The pair were sparring so intensely that it might easily have been mistaken for a real battle.
And those two, of course, were Seok Geum-ryong and the Moon Spirit Sword Lady, Im So-gun.
Now that they were staying at the same manor and sharing its enormous training grounds, he was finally receiving proper instruction from a true super peak master.
“Huuuu.”
Even after unleashing a relentless assault, Seok Geum-ryong was forced back several steps, and he could only click his tongue in admiration.
Truly, the Great Yin Severance Meridians are terrifying.
He felt a stabbing chill at his fingertips, and once again he was made keenly aware of just how fearsome that constitution was.
“Shall we stop here for today?”
Im So-gun said with a gentle, breathtaking smile.
“Yes. Thank you for your instruction.”
Since he was being guided by a master despite being a junior, Seok Geum-ryong replied with proper courtesy and gave a formal salute.
“You were excellent again today. Still, there’s absolutely no need to rush. The Peak Realm is a level that requires not only internal energy, external energy, and martial technique, but also harmony between the body and the mind. At present, Young Master has already achieved harmony between technique and spirit, but your physical growth has not yet caught up, so the stagnation is nothing to worry about.”
Im So-gun’s words were exactly right.
The Peak Realm could only be reached when everything was finally balanced and perfected.
If even one part was lacking, there was no way to attain it.
Seok Geum-ryong’s internal energy had already surpassed the Peak Realm, and his mental fortitude was far beyond what one would expect from a child his age, but there was one problem: his body was still young.
He was only twelve years old, after all, and what he needed now was not advancement but growth.
She doesn’t even suffer from Great Yin Severance Meridians like I do, and yet she possesses such astonishing talent at such a young age. Amazing.
As Seok Geum-ryong admired Im So-gun’s skill, she too was quietly astonished by his growth, which seemed wholly unbefitting of his age.
Im So-gun still did not know that Seok Geum-ryong possessed the Heaven-Defying Body, so her surprise was doubled.
“I’m not rushing anything. Everything will unfold in due time.”
Seok Geum-ryong said with a slight smile, and those words shocked Im So-gun all over again.
What truly made Seok Geum-ryong extraordinary was not merely his martial skill or his ability as a merchant.
That mind. That gaze. He’s calm and seasoned, as though he’s living his life for the second time.
Im So-gun was once more impressed by that uncommon presence.
Perhaps what was drawing her more and more toward the young Seok Geum-ryong was that mature spirit of his.
Next, it’s time to study medicine.
Afterward, Seok Geum-ryong spent his days training his martial arts alone and learning medicine and acupuncture from the Golden Needle Venerable, Yeo Gwang-rae.
Not even half a half-shichen of the day was wasted idly.
“Physician. May I ask to learn about poison removal?”
Lately, Seok Geum-ryong had taken an interest in the process of neutralizing poison, in other words, detoxification.
“Of course. Come to think of it, Young Hero Seok aims to be both a merchant and a martial artist, so learning detoxification is essential.”
Yeo Gwang-rae was more than willing to teach him the medical arts of poison removal.
He assumed Seok Geum-ryong wanted it simply because a martial artist needed to be able to deal with poison, but that was far from the truth.
The time is coming soon.
Seok Geum-ryong was thinking of the death of the Scholar in Blue, Gong Sang-pil, that is, poisoning, and remained on guard.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
After Seok Geum-ryong had worn himself down with grueling martial training and poured himself into the study of medicine before finally falling asleep, he dreamed of a scene that the former Seok Geum-ryong had once seen with his own eyes.
……
A few days before his thirteenth birthday.
Gong Sang-pil, the butler who always wore a lively, cheerful expression, seemed strangely off.
This was after the loss of the servant Deung Chon, and the boy Seok Geum-ryong was still sunk in grief, so the sight of the butler’s devoted care should have been there as always.
Haaah.
From the narrow manor’s shabby side room, one sigh after another spilled out.
If they had been in Bukcheon-won as they were now, in such a sprawling residence, there was no way he could have known any of this.
What was even more surprising was this:
-Butler Gong. Someone has come looking for you.
On the night before his birthday, someone had come to see Gong Sang-pil.
-We need to prepare Young Master’s birthday feast early tomorrow. I don’t know who it is, but please send them away.
Gong Sang-pil had tried to refuse, but whatever was whispered next made him look startled and then brighten at once.
If it had been the present, more mature Seok Geum-ryong, he would have simply gone out and checked for himself without even asking who had called, but back then he could not do that.
-Very well. I’ll go out.
And then there was a long conversation afterward.
Because Gong Sang-pil had gone out toward the caller’s location rather than speaking in the cramped manor, Seok Geum-ryong had no idea what was said.
Time passed again, and Seok Geum-ryong’s thirteenth birthday arrived.
Within that meager birthday table, still shabby and hardly greeted by anyone, Gong Sang-pil could not bring himself to smile.
-Butler Gong. What’s wrong? Is something the matter?
Even with his childish eyes, Seok Geum-ryong could see it plainly and asked, but Gong Sang-pil refused to say a word.
-No, it’s nothing. My stomach is a little upset…
And so Seok Geum-ryong assumed it was nothing, and just as he was about to enjoy the luxurious food he rarely got to eat, there was a sudden grab!
Someone stopped his hand as he reached for the food with his chopsticks.
And that person was, astonishingly…
-Butler Gong?
Gong Sang-pil, the Scholar in Blue.
Seok Geum-ryong was thrown into confusion when he saw Gong Sang-pil’s face, flushed and yet grimly resolved.
-Young Master… you must not eat the food.
Gong Sang-pil snatched the chopsticks from Seok Geum-ryong’s hand and kept him from touching the meal at all.
What on earth could have driven him to do this?
-What in the world is this…
-Young Master. I was a coward. I was selfish as well.
In front of the startled Seok Geum-ryong and the others under his command, Gong Sang-pil muttered in self-mockery.
-What are you saying?
Still not understanding, Seok Geum-ryong asked uneasily.
Seeing Gong Sang-pil like this, he was strangely reminded of the miserable death of the servant Deung Chon.
-I was forced to make a choice, but I did not dare refuse. If not for the courage Deung Chon showed first, then I would have…
Smiling weakly, his face red and strained as though it might burst at any moment, Gong Sang-pil still smiled brightly.
-Young Master. You understand now, yes? Unlike me, you must live with dignity.
Saying this, Gong Sang-pil lifted the wine cup from the birthday table.
-Butler Gong! Please, don’t do this. Aren’t you afraid of death?
At that sight, even the young Seok Geum-ryong realized that Gong Sang-pil was facing death.
-I am afraid. But how a person dies is important too. I was born into a lowly station and had no choice in how I lived, but… at least I can choose how I die, and that makes me glad.
Swish.
After saying that, Gong Sang-pil drained the wine cup in a single gulp.
And what was in it was poison, of course.
-Kheh! Kheh-heehk!
Gong Sang-pil, a pure scholar who had never learned martial arts, immediately coughed up blood the instant he swallowed the poison and staggered in place.
-Butler Gong! Butler Gong!
Seok Geum-ryong cried out and tried to reach him, but the moment the poison was discovered in the birthday feast, the guards intervened and would not let him move as he pleased.
As Seok Geum-ryong was dragged farther away, Gong Sang-pil trembled and slowly extended a hand.
-Y-Young Master…
With his last breath, Gong Sang-pil wanted to reach out and take Seok Geum-ryong’s hand, but he did not dare.
As he died little by little, Gong Sang-pil kept looking at Seok Geum-ryong with a pained expression until, at last…
Thud.
He drew his final breath.
In the end, Gong Sang-pil had swallowed the poisoned wine himself and suffered a bizarre murder by poison.
-Ahh, ahhhhh!
Once again, Seok Geum-ryong was forced to watch someone precious die right before his eyes, and he cried out in despair.
But the poison was so vicious that Gong Sang-pil had died instantly, and even when physicians rushed in, they could not even identify what kind of poison it was, let alone neutralize it.
And so the worst birthday of Seok Geum-ryong’s life passed, and after losing the servant Deung Chon and then his butler Gong Sang-pil as well, he shut his heart away.
In front of that Seok Geum-ryong, the Gold-Selling Swordsman Woo Do-min of Seokga Manor was placed as his guard.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“Huuuu.”
The moment he woke from the dream, Seok Geum-ryong quietly rose.
That strange sensation, as though he had experienced the memories of the former Seok Geum-ryong himself.
He had been flustered the first time, with Deung Chon, but now he was not.
Rather, he felt as though it were a vivid command, as if he had been ordered to set those two deaths right.
“Now that I’ve experienced it myself… there are things that don’t add up, unlike what Young Master said.”
In his previous life, when he had heard from Seok Geum-ryong that Butler Gong had died, Woo Do-min had thought it was simply a death in which a servant drank poison in his master’s place and died.
But what was this?
There were far too many suspicious points.
Not only had someone come to see him the day before his birthday, but he also seemed to know that poison had been placed in the birthday feast, didn’t he?
That meant Gong Sang-pil may have known who the culprit was, and perhaps even conspired with them.
What was especially striking were the things Gong Sang-pil had said to Seok Geum-ryong.
To live with dignity unlike himself, to have been born into a lowly station without choice, and so on.
On the surface they sounded ordinary, but there had to be some hidden story behind them.
“Then could Gong Sang-pil have taken part in the betrayal?”
Seok Geum-ryong made that guess, then immediately shook his head.
No. Impossible!
If he had truly been complicit in the betrayal, he would never have drunk the poison himself.
Moreover, Gong Sang-pil had been moved to guilt and admiration by the righteous death of Deung Chon, who had died first in his place.
Then there was only one answer.
Gong Sang-pil must have been threatened by someone, or had a reason so serious that he absolutely could not refuse.
The first priority was to investigate who had come to him on the night before his thirteenth birthday and what had been said.
And there was one more thing.
“I need to uncover Gong Sang-pil’s background.”
Now that he thought about it, Seok Geum-ryong realized he knew almost nothing about the Scholar in Blue, Gong Sang-pil.
More precisely, he knew him well enough after entering Seokga Manor, and he knew about the man who worked beside him there, but he knew almost nothing about Gong Sang-pil before he had come to Seokga Manor.
He had supposedly come from a family that had produced a number of respectable scholars, failed the local provincial examination for some reason, abandoned the civil path, and drifted into merchant circles in order to make a living.
One thing was certain, though: despite having failed the provincial examination, he was remarkably good with numbers and calculations and possessed quick wits, which was why he had been recognized as a butler at an unusually young age even within Seokga Manor.
Crack.
Seok Geum-ryong clenched his fist as he recalled Gong Sang-pil’s face in his dream, dying with his eyes still open after drinking poison in that desperate way.
It had been one of the most heartbreaking moments of his previous life.
Butler Gong is someone precious to me, and someone my current faction absolutely needs.
If he had not died, he could have become an even greater talent, a true pillar of the world.
At the very least, he could not be lost so pointlessly.
Seok Geum-ryong vowed that he would save Gong Sang-pil at any cost, drawing upon all the strength and influence of this life as well as the memories and knowledge of the last.
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